ECB ranks gold above US Treasuries in global reserve assets
The European Central Bank's 2026 international euro report says gold accounted for 27% of total official global reserves at the end of 2025, ahead of US Treasuries at 22%. The ECB says the shift reflects both central-bank diversification and a sharp gold-price rally, while dollar-denominated assets as a whole still made up the largest reserve block at 42%. That makes the story less a clean end-of-dollar moment than a sign of fragmentation in reserve management. For Belgium, the relevance is indirect but real: the National Bank of Belgium is part of the Eurosystem, Belgian households and firms live inside the euro area financial system, and EU policymakers are trying to strengthen the euro's international role. The IMF research by Serkan Arslanalp, Barry Eichengreen and Chima Simpson-Bell also frames reserve diversification as gradual erosion, not sudden replacement.
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About this story
The European Central Bank (EU institution in Frankfurt, created in 1998 to run euro-area monetary policy) publishes the annual international role of the euro report. Christine Lagarde (ECB president since 2019 and former IMF managing director) introduces the report's institutional framing. US Treasuries (debt securities issued by the United States government) are the traditional core asset in many central-bank reserve portfolios. The US dollar (the dominant global reserve and invoicing currency since the mid-20th century) remains broader than Treasuries alone. The euro (single currency launched electronically in 1999 and used in Belgium since 2002 cash changeover) is the EU's main monetary asset. The National Bank of Belgium (Belgium's central bank, founded in 1850 and based in Brussels) is Belgium's member of the Eurosystem. The Eurosystem (the ECB plus euro-area national central banks) implements monetary policy for euro users. Tether (private stablecoin issuer behind USDT) appears in the ECB report as a large gold buyer.
How to read this story
The history
The Bretton Woods system, agreed in 1944, made the dollar convertible into gold for official holders and fixed other currencies around that anchor. The United States ended dollar-gold convertibility in August 1971, after which major currencies moved toward floating exchange rates. The ECB report compares today's central-bank gold stock with Bretton Woods-era levels, while the IMF research by Arslanalp, Eichengreen and Simpson-Bell says dollar diversification has been gradual over two decades. The 2022 freezing of Russian central-bank assets after Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine intensified attention to reserve sanctions and counterparty risk.
The geopolitics
Gold's reserve rise reflects a world in which sanctions, war risk and strategic rivalry affect central-bank balance sheets. The 2022 freeze of Russian central-bank assets made some reserve holders more sensitive to counterparty and jurisdiction risk. That does not remove the dollar's liquidity advantage, but it makes the reserve system more politically conscious.
Why now
The lead is timely because the ECB's 2026 international euro report, published on 2 June 2026, put gold above US Treasuries in official global reserves at the end of 2025. Al Jazeera's 11 June programme used that data to reopen the dollar-dominance debate.
What to watch
Watch the next IMF COFER releases, gold-price movements, US Treasury yields and the ECB's next international euro report. The key signal is whether the gold ranking survives a price correction or proves mainly a valuation episode after the 2025 rally.
Local impact
The most local Belgian link is the National Bank of Belgium in Brussels, which participates in the Eurosystem and helps implement euro-area monetary policy. The story does not change Belgian bank accounts or shop payments, but it informs how Belgium's central-bank community thinks about reserves, liquidity and monetary sovereignty.
International angle
The story is mainly about the international monetary system. The ECB data place gold, US Treasuries, the dollar and the euro inside one reserve hierarchy, showing that reserve managers are diversifying while still relying heavily on dollar markets. For the EU, the question is whether the euro can gain from that diversification.
What this means for you
Belgian readers do not need to change daily financial behaviour because of this data point alone. The practical takeaway is to expect more discussion of exchange-rate risk, reserve diversification and euro-area financial autonomy. Belgian SMEs with dollar costs or revenues should keep hedging discipline rather than treating the gold move as a forecast of dollar collapse.
What happens next
Markets will watch whether the ECB's next reserve data show gold's share staying above US Treasuries or falling if bullion prices retreat. The IMF's COFER releases will also show whether dollar and euro currency shares keep drifting. EU policymakers are expected to keep pushing capital-market depth, payments autonomy and euro-denominated finance as part of the broader sovereignty agenda.
Potential consequences
If gold remains a larger reserve asset, central banks could become less reliant on US debt at the margin, which may modestly affect demand for Treasuries and encourage more reserve diversification. The practical effect for Belgium would likely be indirect: exchange-rate volatility, dollar funding conditions and euro-area capital-market policy. A sharp gold reversal would weaken the signal because the ECB says valuation effects helped drive the ranking change.
Opposing perspectives
- European Central Bank
The ECB report frames the gold move as part of a more fragmented monetary order, but not as proof that the dollar has been displaced. The ECB's own figures still put dollar-denominated assets at 42% of reserves, while the euro's role is presented as gradually strengthening rather than breaking through overnight.
- IMF reserve-currency researchers
The IMF research by Serkan Arslanalp, Barry Eichengreen and Chima Simpson-Bell argues that dollar dominance has eroded through diversification into other reserve assets, but the process is incremental. This view cautions against treating one gold valuation jump as a decisive regime shift.
- Reserve managers buying gold
Central banks that have accumulated gold can present the move as insurance against geopolitical, sanctions and counterparty risk. The ECB report says reserve managers hold gold partly as a hedge, so their strongest argument is resilience rather than a bet that gold can replace dollar liquidity.
Timeline
- 1944·The Bretton Woods system established a dollar-centred monetary order linked to gold.
- 1971-08·The United States ended official dollar convertibility into gold.
- 1999-01-01·The euro launched electronically, with Belgium among the founding euro-area members.
- 2022-02-24·Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine was followed by Western sanctions on Russian central-bank assets.
- 2025-12-31·The ECB says gold accounted for 27% of official global reserves, ahead of US Treasuries at 22%.
- 2026-06-02·The ECB published its 2026 international role of the euro report.
Glossary
- US Treasuries
- Debt securities issued by the United States government and widely used as liquid, dollar-denominated reserve assets.
- Official reserves
- Foreign currency, gold, IMF positions and other liquid assets held by central banks or monetary authorities.
- Eurosystem
- The European Central Bank and the national central banks of countries that use the euro, including the National Bank of Belgium.
- COFER
- The IMF's Currency Composition of Official Foreign Exchange Reserves dataset, which tracks the currency mix of reported reserves.
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This briefing was prepared with AI assistance and reviewed by a Belgium Impulse editor before publication. methodology.